“Switchcreek was
a normal town in eastern Tennessee until a mysterious disease killed a third of
its residents and mutated most of the rest into monstrous oddities. Then, as
quickly and inexplicably as it had struck, the disease–dubbed Transcription
Divergence Syndrome (TDS)–vanished, leaving behind a population divided into
three new branches of humanity: giant gray-skinned argos, hairless seal-like
betas, and grotesquely obese charlies. Paxton Abel Martin was fourteen when TDS
struck, killing his mother, transforming his preacher father into a charlie,
and changing one of his best friends, Jo Lynn, into a beta. But Pax was one of
the few who didn’t change. He remained as normal as ever. At least on the outside.
Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen
years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething
with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even
darker–and far weirder–mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten
not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.”
It seems almost
every year –usually around the fall- is where I slow down reading. Part of it
may be the shorter days, my everyday depression, new TV season to watch and my
general lack of motivation. Also, a book will slow me down as well. I think
three of the four hit with Daryl Gregory’s The Devil’s Alphabet – a novel that
never really lives up to this promise. There is a lot going here, though: a
murder mystery, an estranged father/son relationship, an internal conflict
between the different conclaves of non-humans, and the biggest idea, the theory
of alternate or parallel universes trying to break through in the prime (?)
universe. Nevertheless, it’s these themes and ideas, while interesting in of
themselves, give the whole a lack of unity.
Still, all the
characters are richly drawn, especially Pax (even if he’s not likable at times)
and Deke –two friends with a strange relationship, but no matter what happens
to them, they’ll always be friends. But, the guilt he carries about Deke, his
girlfriend Donna, and him (who appear to have formed some sort of thruple
before he skipped town) is further magnified by his daddy-issues and death of
Jo Lynn. But of all the people populating this book, Pax remains the most
human.
But the book has
a lot going on and it’s hard, at times, to keep everything straight. And things
get even more complicated when a second TDS happens 2,000 miles away in
Ecuador…so it all never really comes together in a cohesive state. This was his
second book published, though it may have been written before Pandemonium, as it feels a bit “first-time-author-trying-to-prove-something”
and it just has way too much going on. As I said, a lot of ideas here, a lot of
wonderful ideas for other book here, so I shouldn’t be too judgmental.
I’ve now read eight of his Gregory’s nine books now, with one more waiting in the wings. This was a struggle to get through, so I’m hoping the next one –his third, I believe- won’t be. Still, Gregory does dazzle me with his ideas.
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